Now, with years of towing and thousands of miles, we’ve encountered a lot of different situations on the roads.

What can make a break your trip with the caravan is the route. Especially as a lot of great campsites are in remote rural areas, with narrow lanes and sharp turns, and not somewhere where reversing back out is going to be viable.

Today, we should have the technology to help us out; a SatNav that knows you are towing a caravan and makes sure you don’t end up in these situations.

Unfortunately, all too often, SatNavs can still direct you down ‘interesting‘ routes, which don’t save any time. Not something you want to experience when towing a caravan.

The Garmin Camper

The Camper GPS has caravan towing designed into the unit. And while it worked OK, there were still a few times it took us on those interesting little detours.

An Alternative: The CoPilot GPS App

After reviewing the Garmin Camper, people mentioned that they like the CoPilot GPS App. So, time to check it out 🙂

Using Apps for Navigation

For years, we never had a car with a built-in SatNav. Now, we do, as built-in SatNavs have been around so long, when we bought our car second-hand, it had one 🙂

Unfortunately, the maps aren’t up-to-date, and finding places with it isn’t easy. 🙁

Recently, I have been using Google Maps to navigate using my phone. The maps appear to be up to date, and it re-routes traffic problems. It isn’t perfect though, and we still end up on those interesting detours SatNavs like to provide.

Like all SatNavs, it isn’t reliable when towing a caravan.

CoPilot GPS App

The CoPilot GPS App installs onto your phone like Google Maps. CoPilot isn’t a free app though; there’s a subscription, though you do get an initial 14-day free trial period to test the app out.

You set-up your towing profile, entering the length, height, and weight of your unit so that CoPilot can plan Caravan-friendly routes.

You can enter the dimensions for your total towing unit.

Note that it’s not just for caravans. The app works with motorhomes too.

The app supports navigation for different vehicle types. The icon for a Caravan is a Motorhome! Is this app confused?

There are lots of settings to tweak the app.

Quirky User Interface

I find most GPS Apps work the same. However, using CoPilot was slightly different from regular apps, which became frustrating at times when trying to plan a route.

Test One: Going to the Campsite in Wales

The quickest route from where we live is over the Berwyn Mountains, which is not the best route when towing.

The best towing route is along the main roads. Occasionally, holiday traffic causes congestion on the main roads, but it’s a very straightforward towing route to the campsite.

Route Good, Maps Not So

The CoPilot GPS picked the best caravan towing route via the main roads and avoided the SatNav’s favourite of over the Berwyn Mountains. That immediate a big plus to the CoPilot GPS App over Google Maps.

The first time out, and the CoPilot GPS plotted the better route when towing the caravan.

While driving, it spoke clear instructions and helped with displaying which lane to be in at junctions.

The map display has icons with warnings and information. I found these icons too small while driving, and were not clear what they were telling me.

It also displayed the speed limit on screen. The speed limit was just for the road and didn’t take into account the speed limit while towing. It would show 60mph instead of 50mph, for example.

It also got the speed limit wrong, often showing 60mph through 30mph villages (and some of these have speed cameras in Wales).

It works hands free while driving; you don’t need to operate your phone.

Test Two: Returning Home – A complete fail!

After picking the best route to the campsite, it was not the same for the return trip. Instead, it insisted we took the caravan over the top of the Berwyn Mountains.

I kept checking it was in caravan mode, and it was. But it just would not plot the best route, despite my trying.

What is worse, is that as we drove back along the caravan friendly route, the CoPilot GPS App kept trying to direct us down narrow lanes back up to the Berwyn Mountains.

I know the area quite well, and it was instructing us to take hairpin turns, down single lanes and farm tracks, and I know there are some very narrow bridges with sharp corners. CoPilot GPS was obsessed with directing us down the most unfriendly caravan-towing route possible!

We ignored the CoPilot GPS and stuck to the main roads, and got back home in excellent time.

Verdict

Using CoPilot GPS was a little frustrating to use, but I was happy to let that pass after it plotted a good caravan-towing route the first time around.

However, on the journey home, the app was extremely unhelpful.

All-in-all, I found it worse than sticking with Google Maps.

I might try CoPilot GPS App again in the future, but for now, I won’t be buying a subscription.

Do you have a better experience than us with the CoPilot GPS App? If so, please let everyone know and leave a review below.

1.5Expert Score

CoPilot GPS is an app that should help you safely navigate when towing your caravan. It's not free; there's an annual subscription.

Quality

2.5

Ease of Use

1

Value for Money

1

PROS

- Installs onto your phone; you don't need to buy a separate device.

- Navigation instructions were clear.

CONS

- Didn't work well when towing a caravan.

- Inaccuracies in speed limits shown on maps.

- Icons displayed on the map are useless and confusing.

- Subscription payment.

User Reviews

0.0out of 5

★★★★★

0

★★★★★

0

★★★★★

0

★★★★★

0

★★★★★

0

Write a review

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “CoPilot GPS App Review for Towing a Caravan” Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Your Rating

Your Review *

Name *

Email *

Receive replies to your comment by emailGet only replies to your comment, the best of the rest, as well as a daily recap of all comments on this post. No more than a few emails daily, which you can reply to/unsubscribe from directly from your inbox.